Numbers chapter 1

After reading chapter 1:

*Back in Exodus 40, the tabernacle was finished and set up on the frst day of the first month, of the second year in the desert. Now, in Numbers, it is the first day of the second month of the same year. Moses has a private conversation with Yahweh in the tent of meeting, which we will assume is the tabernacle. So, apparently, Leviticus took place in between these times. God tells Moses that he and Aaron are to take a census of all the male Israelites twenty years and older who are able to serve in the army. The heads of the clans were to help them.

*Each person counted registered his ancestry by clan and family. Every single name was supposedly written down, one by one. Twelve clans of Israel were counted, those of Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun,  Ephraim and Manasseh (sons of Joseph), Benjamin, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. The Levites, the clan of priests,  were exempt from service in the Army because they had the special privilege of taking care of all the tabernacle stuff. Nice work, if you can get it.

*The numbers of fighting men in each clan are almost miraculous, they all end with zeroes. All but one end with two zeroes. No odd numbers. Each clan has between 32,000 and 75,000 men. Together they total 603,550. My study bible suggests that the total population, including women and children should have been in excess of 2 million persons, twice the population of Austin, Texas. They all travelled and camped in the desert together for many years and left no trace of their existance. Amazing feat.

*Whenever the Israelites camped, they were to set up their tents in divisions according to their clans. The Levites were to set up their tents around the tabernacle. Only Levites could participate in the setting up and dismantling of the tabernacle. If anyone else came near during this process, they wiould die. They were to literally keep it all in the family.